


three years

by ThatPawnbrokersShopAroundTheCorner



Series: Snapshots [9]
Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: Angst, Gen, M/M, Post-Episode: s03e07 Digestivo, Pre-Red Dragon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-24
Updated: 2015-09-24
Packaged: 2018-04-23 04:42:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 437
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4863581
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThatPawnbrokersShopAroundTheCorner/pseuds/ThatPawnbrokersShopAroundTheCorner
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The first year is the hardest: Hannibal isn't just branded into his memories, he lives in them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	three years

**Author's Note:**

> Part 9 of the 'Snapshots' series: a collection/ corpus of connected to each other but not always chronologically ordered drabbles dealing with Hannibal and Will, their fall and what happened before, after and during it. Spoilers for 'The Wrath of the Lamb', episode 3x13.

 

* * *

Most relationships have a clear expiration date, beginning with fervent joy and unrealistic expectations – a big bang of rampant hormones and overwhelming lust disguised as emotion. It rarely, if ever, ends well, and ultimately, most people are lucky if they don't find the milk tasting sour when it's all over.

Will knows about these kind of relationships. He's got an entire altar devoted to people he drove away, people he left, and people that turned to what-ifs and could-have-beens before anything could materialise.

So when he tells Hannibal that the teacup has shattered, he hopes that, for once in this twisted and sick saga of theirs, Hannibal will listen and not try to keep something running that has been rotting for too long.

If most relationships are sour milk, then theirs is nothing but a ripped out heart, bleeding eternally.

As Hannibal leaves, Will tries to cover the wound with a band-aid, only to find that he can't stop the blood from flowing.

–

The first year is the hardest: Hannibal isn't just branded into his memories, he lives in them. He follows Will in his sleep, shows up in his visions of abandoned aristocratic homes and talks to Will when he's in his stream.

Sometimes he's so omnipresent that Will wants to cry and seek him out in his cell, just to yell that he's got it. He knows he'll never be free. He just needs a break.

He just wants Hannibal to let him go.

–

By the second year, he's gathered his bearings enough to no longer entirely think of Hannibal when he goes about his day to day activities.

Besides, Molly's there, and Will finds solace in the presence of someone who's far removed from Hannibal, and anything he's ever touched.

He hopes it'll stay this way. He doesn't need to have Hannibal tarnishing this piece of life he's carved out for himself.

Still, more often that he can count, he wakes up soaked in sweat, with a name on his lips that has no right to be there, not anymore.

–

In the third year, Jack returns and brings down all the walls Will has kept up over his past. He doesn't even have the courtesy to knock.

Will finds that maybe he didn't do a good enough job of leaving his old life behind, because it just takes him a few hours before he's face to face with the very man he didn't want to and yet longed to see with all of his heart.

The band-aid is ripped off, and Will finds that the wound never healed at all. 

***

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